The 33rd Arthur H. Schein Memorial Lecture: Minsuk Cho
Pavilion Effect
Since establishing Mass Studies, architect Minsuk Cho has consistently engaged with a particular open-ended genre of architecture: the pavilion.
While these pavilion commissions weren't purposely sought out, Mass Studies has explored them over twenty years and counting. The spectrum of iterations ranges from small to large, temporary to permanent, lightweight to massive, singular to multiple. Each project is driven by invention and/or discovery, transforming constraints into architectural motivators yielding encounters between humans and creating dialogues with the environment.
These investigations reveal how tangible context in architecture can be explored in diverse ways—encompassing material selection and construction modes with awareness of their specific temporality.
At the same time, each pavilion attempts to respond to evolving political and socio-cultural moments. The intangible context in architecture is rigorously interrogated across various moments in history, looking backward and forward simultaneously for performative qualities that create specific experiences.
In this lecture, “Pavilion Effect” traces pavilion projects from Mass Studies and various collaborators chronologically, revealing how divergent approaches inform one another and the trajectory of practice itself, over time. The work is constantly confronted with oppositional notions—distant and close, utopian and real, everywhere and somewhere—with aspiration toward a generative cartography of architectural possibilities.
Architect Minsuk Cho established Seoul-based Mass Studies in 2003, directing a practice committed to socio-cultural research and built works encompassing diverse scales and contexts. Each project is a unique architectural performance that nurtures the collective past, present, and future, and are set within conditions ranging from dense urbanity to sensitive natural environments, with varying temporal conditions. Notable projects include Pixel House, Missing Matrix Tower, Shanghai Expo 2010: Korea Pavilion, Daum Space.1, Daejeon University Residential College, Osulloc Tea Museum, Space K Seoul Museum, Pace Gallery Seoul, Won Buddhism Wonnam Temple, the reconstruction and addition to the French Embassy in Korea, Osulloc Tea Factory, and the Serpentine Pavilion 2024 Archipelagic Void. Currently under construction are the new Seoul Film Center, Danginri Cultural Power Plant, and Yeonhui Social Housing.
Multifaceted in his approach, Cho is also recognized for his curatorial work. He co-curated "Named Design" at the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale and served as commissioner and co-curator of the Korean Pavilion for the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, which was awarded the Gold Lion for Best National Participation. Cho's work is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
The Arthur H. Schein Memorial Lecture was established in 1983 by his wife Carole Starr Schein and his family, friends, colleagues, and clients. Arthur Schein was an alumnus of the MIT Department of Architecture, receiving his BArch degree in 1951. Since then, the lecture has allowed us to bring renowned architects to MIT, including Giancarlo de Carlo, Rafael Vinoly, Ricardo Legorreta, Zaha Hadid, Ryue Nishizawa, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Angelo Bucci, Tatiana Bilbao, Christine Binswanger, Marlon Blackwell and most recently, Kazuyo Sejima.
